Celebrating the Becoming Minimalist Community and a Book Giveaway

This past weekend, Becoming Minimalist reached a significant milestone I wanted to share with you.

We officially surpassed 100,000 email subscribers!

That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment worthy of celebration. It means more and more people are being introduced to the life-giving benefits of owning less. And it means our community and our movement continue to grow in significant ways.

Asking people to subscribe via email to receive updates from Becoming Minimalist has never been a huge priority for me. But recently, I’ve begun to change my thinking about that. For starters, there are many readers who appreciate the convenience of receiving an email whenever we publish new posts. I want to make sure readers know that is an option if that’s what they prefer.

Additionally, and equally important, I have just created a 10-day “getting started with minimalism” email sequence to people who subscribe. The sequence includes a PDF copy of my best-selling book, Simplify, as well as first steps people can take on their minimalism journey. It serves as a helpful touchpoint for people who discover the blog, find themselves interested in minimalism, and are ready to start owning less and living more.

If you would like to join the ever-growing email list to receive the free book and email sequence, click here.

For those who have already joined, all 100,000 of you, thank you for being a part of this encouraging community and providing opportunity for this celebratory post.

I’d like to offer a special thank you to everyone who reads Becoming Minimalist. Every month, we welcome over one million unique readers and our Facebook community has now grown to 800,000. These numbers are a credit to each of you who have so generously shared this blog and its articles with friends and family.

Thank you, thank you for supporting Becoming Minimalist and helping to share the inspiration!

To celebrate, I’m giving away 7 book bundles specifically to this community.

**UPDATE: This contest has concluded and winners have been notified. You can find a list of winners at the bottom of this post.

The prize is open to all readers from around the world—we’ll ship the books anywhere for free.

To register for the drawing, leave a comment below.

In the comment, tell us where you are from and which Becoming Minimalist post you remember reading first (or how you were first introduced to this site).

*I know some of you have been reading for many years and do not recall your first introduction, that’s okay, just do your best.

On Friday morning, we will use an online Random Number Generator to select the winners and begin contacting them via email. I will also announce the winners on this post.

Thanks again for being part of the Becoming Minimalist community and making my work so enjoyable. I am more grateful than you realize and I look forward to the comments below and subsequent interaction.

On a personal note, I am blown away by the stories that have been left in these comments. I have read as many as possible.

There are stories from readers who have been following this blog from the very beginning and stories of people who just found it last week. There are stories of people finding us through Facebook, through guest posts, through mentions in the media, through conversations with friends, through Netflix, through Google, and countless people who couldn’t remember exactly how they found it. It has been incredibly encouraging to me to read these stories from all over the world.

I have absolutely no memory of when I first came across Becoming Minimalist. Whether it was via the website or the books, it must have been some two years ago when I first started exploring the idea of minimalism. I know I purchased most of your books for my Kindle (to minimise the physical possessions ;) ). But also because the books were simply not yet available here in Poland. Only recently has the interest in minimalism peaked here, so lots of publications by national and international minimalists have hit the shelves. So this year my interest in minimalism has grown in earnest and has finally translated into actions. Starting with reading “The More of Less”, finally published in Poland this summer, I delved deeper into minimalist podcast (The Minimalists), minimalist websites, videos and documentaries. And then the process started at home and is still going on. For two months now I’ve been stripping down our possessions, donating bags and boxes of books, clothes and decorations, selling stuff online, from kitchen ware to furniture, fancy dresses to sports equipment. And I never thought it would feel so good and mean so much. Minimalism is so much more then decluttering, even more than stripping your house of unwanted, not needed possessions. It is now becoming a completely new lifestyle, a guide and a principle to live by in every area of my life. My children are learning by example. My husband is starting to see the benefits. And my family is joining in. It’s a joyful, communal process that benefits all.

I’ve enjoyed your articles and we are continually downsizing
and loving it. Thanks for the inspirations!
Learning to declutter so that I have room in your head, heart and personal space for what really matters.

Oh my goodness!! I have been reading your magazine for months and months now. I have found so much valuable information to simplify my life. I am so very grateful. God Bless you friend. I was referred to your site by a friend of mine.

Desperately seeking advice on how to simplify and curate life, I took to Google. I found Becoming Minimalist in 2015 and have been reading and following from my little mountain town, Cody, Wyoming, ever since. The first thing I remember reading was about Joshua’s personal journey into minimalism. It was the inspiration and affirmation I was looking for.

I got into decluttering and minimalism nearly 2 years ago and have found it life changing and very liberating. I have been so inspired that I have helped 2 people close to me to have a major clear out. These books look absolutely fantastic and would help me to be more inspired and to inspire others to clear their closets out as well

There was an opportunity to purchase more home than I did at the time. Others were gobbling up two and three units to make one.

When asked why I did not follow suit to take advantage of the “bargain” price I said, ” I have been living in this much space for years. Why would I need more simply because the price is now lower?”

Adding- “As we age our resources- energy, time, money, and interest is usually less than before. The need for maintenance and the cost of it goes up. Do you want to spend the aforementioned cleaning, repairing, securing, and modifying expansive (mostly useless) space or doing something more interesting with your time, energy and money?

That little space I bought gets cleaned with three products + water and I could tend bar or wait tables and pay the mortgage.

Freer is better.

Simpler is freer.

‘Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering.’

The first post I read I think, not sure, was the one where you described the day you decided to become a minimalist cleaning out your garage and realizing that this was taking too much precious time. Your blog and book and the minimalist community you started on Facebook have made a huge impact on me. It’s taken a gradual effect, but I was just noting to myself how much I’ve changed over the past few years because of starting on the minimalist path. Thank you for sharing your journey and encouraging me and many others to do the same.

Hello Joshua!
I’m Yvonne Ang, from Singapore.
I first came across your site because I was feeling mentally cluttered… And bring physically cluttered in my environment did not help. I needed some help and your site popped up through the searches.
You were launching the Simplify course- together with your latest book, and it seemed like the right move for me, esp as I was going though a tough time career wise.
Your little blue book has become an inspiration, and I constantly refer to the Simplify site to work on my baby steps. These are difficult, being a hoarder for years.
Being on the Facebook community helped me emotionally though my difficult season, esp as the folks were so unjudging, and supportive.
Now, I am still working on things, and look forward to the Becoming Minimalist emails.
Pls keep up the good work Josh. Thank You for sharing so much with us.

I’ve followed you for years, and your approach to minimalism had a huge impact on my own approach as a professional organizer. Although I’ve left that profession, your lessons and philosophy still resonate with me. I especially like that getting rid of clutter makes room for the more important stuff — like spirituality. May God bless and reward you for helping so many!

I love becoming a minimalist and your articles and tips and tricks have really helped me do that. This past year I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer. In my downtime, I realized how important people were in my life and not things. I have worked diligently to remove unwanted and unnecessary things from my home. Becoming a Minimalist has changed my life for the better. Thank you.

It sounds like in addition to this wonderful blog you could use flylady.com. Check it out. It helped me a lot to get rid of things I didn’t love or need. She had us run through the house once a week with a garbage bag and throw away 27 things as a first step. It was inspiring. I’m still clutter free ten years down the road. This blog and fly lady will change your life for the better.

I’m from the Midwest, currently living in a too-big house due to my husband’s obsession with “status” & looking the part. I purchased “The More of Less” book to start myself on a more minimalist journey & hope to someday convince him of the joy of owning less of everything too! He has participated in declutering a few small areas so there is hope! I enjoy reading about minimalism & incorporating as much as I can in my life (without causing my husband too much stress at this point). :)

I have been distressed by the clutter in my home for years, especially boxes of things that are paper. I found myself drained of all my energy every time I started with good intentions to do something about it. Consequently, my self worth was impacted. Getting started was just too overwhelming as I did not have a systematic way to approach it. When I heard you speak on “Focus on the Family” in the Spring 2017, I ordered the electronic version of “Less is More” and soon heard about the class also. As a gift to myself I quickly signed up. It has been the best gift I have ever given myself. I have finally made a dent in almost every room in our house thanks to the systematic approach Joshua Becker has us go through. I will be going though the class again to go deeper. Thank you for making this available for people like me who have struggled for years with accumulation. My fingers have been pried loose from possessions that have had a strangle hold on me.

My family has been following Becoming Minimalist and the minimalistic lifestyle for awhile now. My kids are in high school now. We live in a small 3 bedroom apartment and have diligently worked over the years to get rid of the things filling closets and shelves that we don’t use. We live in an area of town that is economically advantaged and many of my teens friends live in $500,000 homes. Just the other day my son came home from a friends house, describing all the fancy furniture and electronic gadgets his friend had. Then he said “Mom, their house seems so cluttered!”. Success!!!! A true victory in my eyes. Thank you Joshua for your wonderful blog!

I was living in a cluttered, 256 sq ft studio apt in the early 2000’s. Then had an epiphany watching Peter Walsh on “Clean Sweep” and started evaluating and decluttering. Then sometime in 2012 I stumbled upon minimalist websites, and searched for “Christianity + minimalism” and Becoming Minimalist was the top search result. I have enjoyed reading the blog posts from the very first one, and refer to BM on a weekly basis.

Hi! I’m from Sydney, Australia. I heard about your site a few weeks after I’d considered getting rid of a whole lot of things but had no idea where to start – and spoke to someone that it turned out had read your site and a lot of other info. This was one of the main links she gave me. The first article that caught my fancy was A Practical Guide to Owning Fewer Clothes.

I have been interested in minimalism for a long time and purchased your book “Simplify” several years ago after an online general search.
I am always looking for ways to keep decluttering and to maintain a simplified life. It is great to come across online community and support.

In the early 70’s I read “Living More with Less” and “Voluntary Simplicity.” Then life happened. Now I am returning to a more simple life and eliminating to return to the freedom of simplicity. Your writings have inspired me. No more cleaning the garage rather than playing with the grandkids!!

I have loved reading about minimalism and I have really tried to live that lifestyle. This page has definitely helped me out with that. On of my favourite post and one of the first ones I remember reading was about project 333.

I have been reading your blog for years. In 2005, after the loss of my parents and former husband… I was left with a lot of stuff to deal with… I was overwhelmed. I do not remember the first post I read, probably in 2009 when I joined Facebook, but my life is slowly changing. I am beginning to see the light of living with less. I am tempted to join one of your groups, but dealing with husband’s health issues first.
thank you for all the wonderful post. I will get there soon.

I’m so thankful to have come across your site. You popped up in my FB feed bc a friend commented at one point and I’ve been following you ever since. Living in a tiny condo with my husband and son has always meant living in a minimalist way but it’s an ongoing challenge to maintain since we live in a consumption society. Thanks for bringing more attention to this topic, I look forward to your future work.

I am really trying to declutter and let go of 4 generations of stuff. We are downsizing and I love all the old stuff….. it has been in my life and I like it…. but… no room for it in our new downsized house we are building. How do I pick and chose..I can keep some things. but… not room for it all … and like I keep reading.. the younger generation doesn’t want that old stuff. so why keep it for them to just throw away…. I am hoping to have a vintage sale very soon.. as all the old stuff seems to be the hot item right now… and hope I can really clear out stuff. I am hoping your books will be a great help to me.

I’m from Montreal in Canada, and I think one post that comes to mind as a gateway to the blog was on our job, something about if we wouldn’t do it for free, getting paid for it is not going to make us happy. I am fortunate today that my full-time, paying job is an extension of what I was already doing for free. And I love it!

I am from Indiana – I am a new member to the becoming minimalist community (August 2) ” 7 pieces of financial advice that changed my life” got my attention- I am on an ever changing journey for peace in all aspects of my life.

Hello from Poland. I started to interest with minimalism, found some fanpages of Polish minimalists and Facebook suggested me to also like your profile. Then I reached to your page and watched the documentary on Netflix and I’m slowly changing my life :) Thank you!

I love your tips on minimalism. It seems we all have way too much stuff these days, and I just want to downsize. I want the feeling of less stuff, less clutter. Thank you for your tips and tricks, they are so helpful. Just being reminded everyday helps so much.

You have touched my life since 2012. I am from Long Beach, CA. I was cleaning our room, and just decided to be a minimalist. It was not easy, I admit, so I googled/searched blogs about it, and found yours. I checked your Facebook Page and Instagram account, too, and followed you there. I even let my family and friends like your FB page by sharing it to them. Now, 85 of them like your page. Lol Keep motivating us. Thank you.

You have touched my life since 2012. I was cleaning our room early that year, and just decided to be a minimalist. It was not easy, I admit, so I googled/searched blogs about it, and found yours. I checked your Facebook Page and Instagram account, too, and followed you there. I even let my family and friends like your FB page by sharing it to them. Now 85 people of them are following you. Lol Keep motivating us. Thank you.